Duke Nukem Forever hands-on

Next to me another game writer is stuck on the same boss encounter, shooting at a huge space ship in a turret. He slams his controller down and a member of the team offers to warp him to the next section. They're breaking down the monitors and systems and wiping down the surfaces. Tonight there will be a party here, but I'm going to go back to my room to write and then sleep—hopefully to dream my own dreams of Vegas, and a game that's better than the one I played.

A world without Duke is a scary one, but perhaps there's something to be said for going out on a high note as the cartoon hero who pushed the world of first-person shooters into new and interesting places. The idea of Duke is much stronger than the reality.